Watch List: Startup movies you should watch for inspiration

Startups are built by ambitions and visions, and for that reason, it is popular by filmmakers to capture the imaginations of the ideas and early entrepreneurs. Think of all those stories from Silicon Valley and all those founders that began in their garages which turned to a shared space and eventually even a headquarter. Think about all those successful and unsuccessful attempts and stories of all business people who are thriving to make their way. 

The following eleven TV shows and films should bring you some inspiration and some lessons from their failures and successes, and whether they are based on a real story or fictional, everything comes with a message and learnings. Startup Disrupt is suggesting you watch these:

1. Silicon Valley

Short description: A TV series follows Pied Piper, a Silicon Valley startup, with five other programmers struggling to make their mark in Silicon Valley, capturing the absurdity of the current startup moment on television. 

Genre: Comedy

2. Jobs

Short description: American biographical drama film based on the life of Steve Jobs, from 1974 while a student at Reed College to the introduction of the iPod in 2001.

Genre: Drama/Biography

3. Joy

Short description: A biographical comedy-drama film, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Joy Mangano, a self-made millionaire who created her own business empire.

Genre: Comedy/Drama

4. Startup.com

Short description: A documentary film about a dot com startup company, and examination of the current internet revolution at the time. Traces the birth and failure of new media company govWorks.com

Genre: Documentary

5. The Pursuit of Happyness

Short description: A story based on the life of entrepreneur Chris Gardener’s nearly one year struggle of being homeless with his son while interning as a stockbroker, and unbelievable circumstances to achieve his dreams.

Genre: Biography/Drama

6. The Social Network

Short description: As Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea, and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.

Genre: Biography/Drama

7. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Short description: The Inventor examines the rise and fall of Theranos, a multibillion-dollar biotech company that was set to transform the healthcare industry. The documentary mainly revolves around Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos.

Genre: Documentary

8. The Great Hack

Short description: One of the most shocking scandals in 2018 was the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The Great Hack is a documentary film which examines the scandal through the eyes of people who were involved in it.

Genre: Documentary

9. The Big Short

Short description: The Big Short tells three separate but parallel stories of individuals who were able to predict and profit from the American financial crisis of 2007-08.

Genre: Drama/Comedy

10. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Short description: Wall Street serves as a cautionary tale of how ambition can sometimes lead us down an unethical path.

Genre: Drama

11. The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest

Short description: A fictional story about the internet boom in the late ’90s. A young man leaves his job in Silicon Valley in order to come up with a personal computer for $99 and make a business from it.

Genre: Comedy